The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 12 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Madrone: Sunfolding took an unprofitable project to show revenue growth
“That was the one that was ready, and it was this big project on totally flat land where we're going to be losing a ton of money, and we had to make the decision, is it worth it to do something that doesn't Show off our value proposition that we're trying to se…”
Sunfolding single-sourced its core polymer, ignoring government partner warnings
“Throughout Sunfolding, even from the beginning when we were working with the government, they were like, don't you need two different materials so that in case something happens with the one, you'll have something to fall back on? And we said, sure, when we ha…”
Venture scale expectations forced Sunfolding to abandon niche solar markets
“So many of the conversations were around how do we become one of the top three companies in the world. They weren't about how do we utilize this unique technology to Help specific communities or sectors of the market that no one else is addressing. It was just…”
Madrone: Sunfolding was unprofitable and lost money per project before Series B
“We still weren't at positive margin, and so that means that effectively we're still kind of paying for each project. We are not making any money on any project, which means that we have all this great pipeline of projects, we have this portfolio we can use for…”
Turkey earthquake halted Sunfolding's core polymer manufacturing for six months
“There was this horrible earthquake in Turkey, just really devastating that took out some tiny component that was one of the ingredients in this polymer, and if DuPont had still been overseeing the polymer, maybe it would have been okay, but DuPont had gotten b…”
Solar cost reductions consistently outpace hardware startup milestones
“And we were part of this amazing industry, the solar industry, that keeps deciding it's going to lower its costs much faster than anyone could ever predict. So that means we would get to our cost target, and the industry would have already moved way far ahead …”
Madrone: Land preservation wasn't seen as valuable enough to justify risk
“Our value proposition of preserving the land, I think at that point in time, wasn't Accepted as being a good enough value proposition to be worth the risk of us moving forward.”
Madrone: Most solar trackers require flat ground due to rigid steel torque tubes
“Most trackers are connected with a long torque tubes, It's long steel tube, and so all of them are connected by the super long steel tube, which means that the ground beneath it has to be flat. And so that usually means you're either on flat land or you need t…”
Flat solar land was exhausted by 2022, forcing development onto hills
“Solar had used up a lot of the flatland that we talked about earlier, and so there started to become a lot of projects that were on undulating terrain”
Madrone: Sunfolding required only 3-4 structural components versus dozens for traditional trackers
“So Sunfolding had about three to four structural components compared to dozens of structural components that a traditional tracker would have.”
Madrone: Sunfolding manufactured almost all tracker parts domestically in the US
“So all of our stuff, most of our, almost every part of ours was made in the U.S., and we used so much less steel that it made sense for us to be in the U.S. We had a much simpler part, so it made more sense to be in the U.S.”